A moral conscience is good except when it’s not

A moral conscience is good; it distinguishes right from wrong actions, sets the bar for good conduct and makes people more compassionate all round, right?

Having said that, can a moral conscience ever be a bad thing?

Yes, because if it springs from confused thinking, wrong motives and negative consequences follow.

If moral conscience originates from a chaotic head space the driving force becomes to fill some internal need, which may have nothing to do with morality per se.

As an example of this messy thinking, a Dutch psychologist who treated Communist and Nazi patients post World War Two noted that people from domineering families or other bad early life experiences were attracted to authoritarianism, especially extreme ideologies with an almost religious fervor as a way of compensating or ‘fixing’ themselves.

Outside of this, the likely explanation for people supporting these ideologies was mentally instability.

Right now, many people internalize a misplaced sense of guilt over the mistreatment of all types of people throughout history up to and including the present.

Disagreement comes in when they turn into self-elected arbitrators of all things moral, trying to shame and demonize others to get them to think like them.

It’s amazing how secular politics is really quasi-religion; by identifying with a particular persuasion people think they are delivered from ‘the sins’ of others.

It’s been argued the awakening of moral consciousness in the west along with a hypersensitivity to historical injustice will cause a worsening of human character, and face it; we witness its rotten fruit every day.

What is Moral Consciousness

Moral consciousness can be defined as an outcome of reason after considering all facts and consequences then selecting that which is best for the common good.

If the operative words are reason and the ability to weigh up facts and consequences we’re in trouble because there’s not too much of that going on.

But here’s something interesting to think about; individuals are able to overcome their egotism and transcend themselves and their interests and consider others.

Groups, however, lack this capacity. This is a result of collective egoism where individuals transfer their individual egos into the group.

Niebuhr argues that moralists do not realize the limitations of rationality and religion to check the overwhelming egoism and self-interestedness of groups.

They also do not realize the way in which rationality is bent in order to serve group interests and how human beings lack the moral imagination to sympathize with others outside of their personal interactions.

Ethics may govern relations between individuals, but politics and, thus, the power of coercion must always govern the relations between groups.

A Word about Shame

We live in a shame based culture where people constantly whine over being shamed for something or other, this tactic is normally frowned on, that is, unless it’s directed at the enemy, in which case feel free to indulge in some shaming.

The thing is shame is external, inflicted by peers, parents and society to bring remorse.

Guilt on the other hand is internal; it’s what we feel in reaction to something we have done wrong.

So there can be no shame where there’s no guilt and guilt can’t be induced by off the mark, immoral attempts to shame.

When people moan about being shamed what they fail to appreciate is that just maybe it’s the stirring of their own guilt they are reacting to, not the shaming in it.

From Loud and Proud to Shamed

Whatever happened to the loud and proud attitude of radicals past?

Second wave feminism promoted promiscuity for political reasons, sure they justified their actions but they never pretended they were moral.

Unlike today’s slut shaming, what does this even mean?

Don’t refer to my actions as a vice to make me feel bad seems to be the view.

The same could be said for abortion which now falls under the banner of reproductive health.

This tendency not to call a thing a thing but something else, without question, has reached epidemic levels.

But please, please call it anything else but denial and delusion.

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